Burning Blue
by ThePendragonQueen
Summary: The team visits a planet on a diplomatic meeting were they run on emotions. An orb takes the emotions of the person who touched it and transforms it into electricity. When the team is being given a tour, Lance accidentally touches it.


"Everyone ready?" Allura asked. Nods went all around.

"Good. Remember, this is a diplomatic mission. We need to stay focused and respectful so no messing around," She instructed. The last part was aimed a bit more towards Lance.

"Relax, it'll be fine," Lance assured, shooting a large grin. Allura rolled her eyes as they stepped out of the castle.

The Paladins, Allura, and Coran stepped out into a lush green landscape just on the edge of town. They had parked the castle away from the city as to not disturb anything. They all walked out to the city to meet the Frutiars- the inhabitants of planet Frutain.

As they neared, tall, bright buildings shined in anticipation. Frutiars walked all about the city talking, going to work, just going about their daily lives. They were a fairly advanced civilization. They had electricity and power and excelled in science. Lance knew Pidge was excited ever since Allura had said they were going here.

They walked up to a large circular building that acted as their version of a city hall. A brown alien a little taller than Pidge with a long tail and floppy ears came running out of the door to greet them.

"Good morning!" They chimed happily. "I'm Whivera. Welcome to Frutain! I'm so glad to meet you all. It's amazing you're here! Please, come in, come in."

With that she hustled them all into the building and up the stair until they reached the top floor. The room was large and mostly empty except for a few seats by the walls and a glass orb that rested atop a gold pedestal. Behind that was an open balcony that overlooked the city.

From the corner the Paladins heard footsteps and turned towards them. Out came a slightly taller and yellower alien with horns and a long robe.

"Ah, it seems our visitors have arrived," he said adjusting the tiny glasses that rested on his small snout. "Team Voltron. It is so nice to meet you." He went around the group and gave everyone handshakes.

"King Zezra, Princess Allura. We are so blessed to be meeting you right now." Allura spoke, gesturing to the rest of them.

King Zezra smiled. "Oh, please, don't be so modest. Come, let me show you around before we start talking business."

The Paladins nodded and followed King Zezra as he walked towards the glass orb.

Shiro was about to ask what it was but the King spoke up first. "This is our electricity."

Everyone shot him confused looks. His vague explanation only gave them more questions than before. How was an orb their electricity?

"Uh, wha-?" Lance started but Keith nudged him hard in the side with his elbow to stop him from talking and embarrassing everyone.

The King merely chuckled. "Our planet thrives off emotion. It's what powers our machines and gives us light. We simply touch the orb ever so gently," the King placed a gentle hand on the orb and it glowed a bright, almost blinding yellow. The lights around the room buzzed with electricity and washed everything in a light slightly more yellow than before. The city followed suit. "The color reflects our moods."

"And what does yellow mean?" Coran asked curiously. Everyone was squinting and holding their hands up to their eyes to stop some of the light from blinding them.

The King let go of the orb and the lights dimmed and went back to normal. "A yellow that bright means excitement," he smiled happily.

"Do you mind if I give it a try?" Allura asked. She seemed eager to see how it worked.

"Of course," the King said, waving a hand towards the orb, allowing Allura to touch it.

Allura gently placed her palm on the orb. The orb turned a yellowish brown that was dimmer than the Kings. The lights around them stayed the same. Very little energy was emitting from them.

Allura frowned. "What does that mean?"

The King cocked an eyebrow. "Which one? The color or the energy?"

"Both," she answered seeming upset.

King Zezra smiled sadly. "The yellow is happiness but it's duller and mixed with brown. There's something holding you back, keeping you from being fully happy. It lingers ever so slightly in the back of your mind."

Allura gave a weak smile and bowed her head slightly. "My father... What about the energy?"

The King nodded. "As for the energy, it burns brighter when there's more emotion being felt. You stop yourself from feeling it all and push it down."

"Oh..." Allura said sounding a bit disappointed. Lance wasn't sure if it was in the results or in herself.

The King gave a reassuring smile. "Relax. You shouldn't worry too much. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes you have to hold it in for a little so you can continue on with life. Just don't hold it for too long."

Allura gave a thankful smile and nodded. Lance couldn't help but wonder what everyone else's would be. Would Keith's be an angry red? Would Shiros be duller since he's forgotten some things? Or would that make it be brighter? Would everyone's be a sad brown or happy yellow? What would his color be?

Next to him Pidge snickered. "You're staring," she whispered to him.

"Huh? I'm wha-?" He asked confused.

Hunk laughed. "Yours would be bright pink for looovve," he cooed teasingly.

Lance groaned and rolled his eyes. "Shut it, Hunk. It so would not be," he argued back but he had to admit, he was blushing a little. How could he not? He was being teased about liking someone on a very important diplomatic mission. They were purposely outing him. Pidge and Hunk always new how to make Lance flustered.

"Come, lets start the meeting," King Zezra said as he waved for them to follow him out of the room.

Lance started following the rest of them out but Pidge and Hunk were still teasing him. "Smoochy, smoochy," Pidge said puckering her lips and making kissing noises.

"Haha," Lance laughed unamused.

"Oh, c'mon, you know it's true," Hunk teased, inching closer to Lance and giving him a little nudge with his elbow.

"Is not-!" Lance started but he was cut off by Hunks nudge that was a bit stronger than the boy had probably intended. Hunk sent Lance falling to the side right as they walked past the orb. "Woah!" Lance said as he just barely kept himself from running into the orb and breaking it. He managed to twist himself around and instead of running face first into it, his hand instead just barely grazed the side of it.

The orb turned a light blue and burned brightly. The lights in the room buzzed loudly with power, the lighting getting brighter and stronger. Lance fell to the floor and plugged his ears as the buzzing noise got louder. There was a loud pop and the Paladins yelped in confusion. There was another pop next to him. Lance realized that the light was emitting so much power that the bulb had burst.

Out beyond the balcony Lance realized the whole city was washed in a wave of blue as lights burned bright enough to blind them. There were explosions coming from down there, machines and generators being so overwhelmed with electricity that they exploded and broke.

Inside the room everyone was holding their hands up to their eyes and squinting desperately as they tried to keep from going blind. After another pop from an exploding bulb that sent shattered glass to the ground the lights dimmed and went back to normal.

Lance wearily opened his eyes and looked around. Next to him was a pile of shattered glass. What had he done? He had one job. All he had to do was come along and not do anything stupid. Just stay out of the way of everyone, let Allura do the talking, and this diplomatic meeting would have been perfect! But of course, he had to go mess this up too. Just like everything else.

Lance looked up at the rest of the team and King Zezra. "I'm so sorry!" He sputtered desperately as he carefully tried to get up without cutting himself on the glass next to him. "It was an accident! I didn't mean-" Lance cut himself off when he saw their faces. Most of the team seemed to have a mixture of shock. Some, like Keith and Allura, were a bit more angry while Hunk and Pidge seemed a bit more embarrassed- from being the ones who sent him sprawling because of messing around, no doubt.

The King, however, had a different look on his face. His look was full of shock like the others but it also held something else- an emotion Lance couldn't quite pinpoint exactly but he almost looked sad or remorseful. Lance couldn't figure out why. He expected him to be angry. Maybe he was sad that his lightbulbs were broken but something told Lance that wasn't it.

Lance took a shaky breath as he dusted himself off. "I- I'm so sorry, Sir. I just tripped, I didn't mean to break anything-" the King cut him off with a wave of his hand. Lance quickly shut his mouth and looked down ashamed.

"What was that?" Shiro asked confused. Lance wasn't sure who he was asking, him or the King.

The King took a second to think and take everything in before speaking. "Emotion. A lot of it."

Pidge couldn't help but snicker. "I was right, you do feel strongly," she said, nudging Hunk to get his attention.

Hunk laughed. "Yeah, so does blue mean love or something?" He teased, sticking a tongue out to Lance.

Lance frowned. This wasn't a joking matter, why were they treating it like one? Why were they treating him like one? Lance felt bad enough without them making comments. All he wanted to do was pull his hoodie up and hide in it.

Keith shrugged. "I'm not surprised. You are always joking around and talking to loud. It would make sense that he feels so much," he said rolling his eyes.

Lance frowned. "Sorry I'm not dead inside like you," he shot back. Keith's mouth formed a tight line as he growled and shot Lance a hard glare.

Lance couldn't help but notice Shiro staring at Lance intensely. It made Lance want to crawl inside a shell and hide forever. Anything to get him away from that stare.

"Maybe it's blue because of his lion," Allura suggested but it sounded more like a question.

Coran frowned, deep in thought. "I'm not quite sure what blue means to humans on earth but in Altea, blue was always seen as a sad color."

Shiro nodded. "It's the same on Earth," he agreed nodding, still not taking his eyes of Lance.

Lance rubbed his arm awkwardly. He hated being the center of attention. Not like this anyway. He had no control of the situation. No one was laughing, he wasn't telling a joke. He felt more like he was being dissected under a microscope. It made him feel exposed and queasy.

"What? Lance? Sad? No way!" Pidge exclaimed.

Hunk nodded. "Yeah, I've known Lance for years and the only time I ever saw him sad was when someone ignored his flirting attempt or they ran out of pudding in the cafeteria. And even then he gets over it pretty quickly," he said agreeing with Pidge.

Lance opened his mouth ready to shoot back but King Zezra took a step towards him. His aged eyes took over Lance as a whole and assessed ever fiber of his being. He stepped in front of Lance and placed his hands gently on the sides of his face. His eyes bore into Lance's.

"You feel so strongly," he examined slowly. "I haven't seen that kind of power emit since I became King and that was quite long ago."

Lance gulped. "I'm sorry," he said desperately.

The King shook his head. "No, don't apologize. It's not a bad thing. To have so much emotion, it means you care about others deeply. It also means you suffer deeply. I'm afraid... I'm afraid that's what it is right now."

The King continued to stare into Lance's eyes with curiosity. Lance couldn't help but feel as if he was looking for something. Confirmation? Proof? Lance wanted to do neither. He wanted this whole thing to go away. He wanted to go back in time and keep himself from ever touching the orb and make this whole situation disappear.

Lance gulped. He was terrified of what was happening- of what this meant. The King continued to stare into Lance's eyes and it was almost like they were having a silent conversation. Finally he spoke.

"They don't know... do they?" He asked quietly. Lance merely gave a small shake of his head. "They should," he suggested.

Lance shook his head and closed his eyes. He could feel tears start to prick at the corners of is eyes. "No," he spoke quietly.

"It'll only get worse," the King argued back. "You know that."

Lance struggled to keep the tears back. "Please," he pleaded desperately. He didn't need the team worrying about him. They all had their own things to worry about. Pidge has to find her family, Allura was mourning the death of her family and her entire civilization, Coran too. No one had time to deal with his issues and they shouldn't have to. His issues were his and not a burden to be placed on someone else.

King Zezra frowned at Lance's lack of cooperation. "They should know-"

"No." Lance was firmer with his statement this time.

The King argued back but kept his voice low and steady. "You need to tell them-"

"No."

"You need to tell _someone_ -"

" _No_."

"It will only get worse-"

" _Please_ ," Lance pleaded again. A single tear ran down his cheek. He couldn't help it, it was all too overwhelming.

Behind the King, Lance could see the rest of them look between each other confused. Hunk scratched his head before speaking up. "Wait, I-I'm confused. What's going on here? Who needs to tell who what?"

The King gave Lance one last hard stare before turning around to face the others. "This Kingdom has not seen power that strong in decapheebs. It's rare to get a reaction that powerful. The last time that happened... well, Emperor Zarkon was here. It was only a couple weeks before he had turned his back on Altea. He touched it and the whole city turned black in an instant."

Everyone stared wide-eyed at the King and then at Lance. Hearing that story sent shivers down Lance's spine. Being compared to Zarkon like that... that was never a good thing. He didn't want to be compared to him. He wanted to stay far away from him.

"Zarkon came here before he turned on Altea and you all did nothing?" Allura asked. She sounded angry. She was almost spitting the words at him.

"The orb isn't a fortune telling machine, Princess. It tells current emotions, not the future. We can only try to interpret it. We had no idea he was going to turn," he explained calmly but Allura still seemed angry.

Shiro interrupted. "Wait, but you said Zarkon's turned black. Lance's turned blue, what does that mean?"

Lance felt his heart sink into his stomach. For a second they had forgotten about him. He wished they would move on from him. They usually don't pay Lance much attention when he wants it but now that all he wanted was to hide away on his own, of course they would have all eyes turned on him.

King Zezra sighed. "I'm afraid he was correct in saying that blue is the color for sadness," he said gesturing to Coran.

Keith frowned. "Are you saying Lance is sad? That doesn't make any sense. Lance is the happiest person on the ship. He never stops talking or telling jokes," he pointed out.

"Yeah, Loverboy Lance and all that," Pidge agreed nodding.

The King cocked an eyebrow to them. "You must not know your teammate very well then. Just because he appears that way on the surface does not mean he only feels that way at all times. Most people cover up their true emotions. Some do it better than others," he pointed out gesturing to Lance.

Covering up his emotions was something Lance had been doing for a while but now that the King was outing him, he wasn't sure he would be able to get away with it now. The whole team knew and would be on high alert. They would worry about him when they should be worrying about saving the universe, all because of some stupid orb.

Shiro took a step forward. "Lance, is this... true?" He asked carefully.

"I don't want you guys to worry about me," was all he said.

A shocked look spread across Shiros face. "Lance, you can't hide something like that from us. We're your team, we can help you."

"We're a team whose here to save the universe, not worry about some stupid little feelings," Lance argued.

Keith raised his eyebrows. "Little?" He asked incredulously. "You almost blew up the city! Little is definitely an understatement."

Lance bowed his head sadly and stared at his feet. "Sorry, I didn't mean to touch it and hurt the city and the people in it," he apologized while awkwardly rubbing his arm. He didn't want to hurt anyone and yet he had messed up badly enough that he had. Just because he was messing around like always.

"It's not your fault. I accidentally pushed you into the bulb. It's my bad, I'm sorry," Hunk apologized to everyone.

With a shake of his head, Shiro butted in again. "It doesn't matter who did what or how this happened. What matters is how you're feeling, Lance. You're obviously feeling very strongly. Why didn't you talk about it to someone?"

"I already told you why. Everyone has got their own problems to deal with, they don't need to worry about mine." Lance was getting tired of explaining himself over and over again. What was so hard to understand about that?

Shiro shook his head. "You're right, we all have our own problems. That doesn't mean we don't talk about it with others. Talking helps, it allows you to let some of it go, get it off your chest."

Lance just shrugged. He wasn't sure what to say to that. He had never really thought of it that way. He was only ever worried that if he tried telling someone his problems they'd only find it annoying and think of him as selfish for only worrying about himself.

As Lance was ready to keep walking and forget this every happened Shiro spoke up again. "Why blue?"

Lance gave him a quizzical look. "Huh?"

"Your light," Shiro explained. "It burned bright blue. Why?"

Lance shrugged. He didn't know how to answer that question. "I dunno."

Shiro took a couple steps closer to Lance until he was standing face to face in front of him. "Lance, blue means sad. So why was your light such a pure blue? Even Allura's was a mixture. Yours was just... blue. Like- like there's nothing else other than... than sadness."

Heat welled up in Lances throat as he felt nauseous again.

"I guess... I guess it's a lot of things?" He finally answered.

"Like what?" Shiro furthered inquired.

"Like... like feeling like a seventh wheel. Feeling useless. You all are so talented. Hunks an amazing engineer and cook and can make any room brighter. Keith is a skilled sword fighter. Pidge is a tech wiz. You're a natural born leader. Allura has magic and can fly the castle and open worm holes. Coran knows the castle inside and out like the back of his hand. What can I do? Make jokes that only annoy people? It seems like I'm pretty expendable." Lance couldn't believe he had admitted that. The words just flowed out so easily after he started. They had been building up for so long, it almost felt good to say them. Almost. He was still ashamed. Ashamed he felt that way, ashamed he was so useless, ashamed he was waisting the others times with his own selfish needs. If they didn't think he was useless before they would definitely think so now.

Despite wanting to shut up and hide away forever, Lance found words still tumbling out of his mouth like they had a mind of their own. "I don't do anything good, everyone would rather hang out with someone else. No one takes me seriously- I mean, why would they? I don't take myself seriously. I'm obviously a seventh wheel and I- I just- I miss my family. I miss Earth. I wanna go home. I just want to see my family again. I just wanna go home." Lance found tears streaming desperately down his face as he blubbered on about wanting to go home. Great, now they would think he's weak, too.

He wasn't sure when he had started crying but now he couldn't stop. The tears kept rolling down his face one after another. They all felt long over due.

Shiro looked shocked and sad all at once. Like he couldn't believe what was coming out of Lance's mouth and was sad that it was. "Oh, Lance. You're not useless, you're far from it."

"B-but I am. I-I can't fight. No matter how... _hard_ I try, I just can't- I can't beat your scores. I can't even catch u-up. I'm just not... _good_." Lance was sobbing now.

"Lance, just because you're not amazing at that doesn't mean there's nothing else you're good at. Everyone's different, you just have to find your thing." Shiro assured. He wrapped his arms around Lance and patted his hair down softly as he leaned Lance into his body.

It felt weird breaking down in front of the team and Shiro comforting him felt just as weird. Yet, it somehow also felt really good, like just the gentle touch of another person was calming him down. Lance wished he could just crawl into bed and cry. He wanted to be in the dark where no one else could see him. But he also didn't want to leave the warm embrace of Shiro. It was a confusing situation.

"'M sorry," Lance mumbled into Shiro's shoulder.

"Don't apologize," Shiro assured, holding him tightly.

Lance shook his head. "I'm sorry. 'M so sorry. I- I shouldn't be crying like this. This is so stupid. I'm so stupid. I'm sorry." He pushed himself away from Shiro and wiped his eyes furiously.

Shiros eyebrows knitted together with concern. "Lance, you are not stupid."

Lance couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh. "Are you serious? I'm easily the dumbest one on the team. You know it too. Everyone acts and treats me like I am..." he muttered the last part a little more under his breath. He was afraid to admit that and tell them how they treated him. Would they think he was over exaggerating? They probably didn't mean to treat him like that anyways. Or maybe they did. They definitely had good reason too.

"Why do you think so lowly of yourself?" Shiro asked. It was a serious question. He genuinely didn't know the answer and wanted to.

Lance wasn't really sure how to answer that. How do you explain that you have terrible self-esteem and constantly view yourself as worse than everyone else? And how do you do that without everyone pittying you? He was fair to think like that- he was the worst on the team. Everyone could see it from a mile away. He provided nothing useful to the team.

"I dunno," Lance finally shrugged. "I guess I've always felt worse than everyone else..."

"You're not, Lance," Shiro said.

Lance was starting to get annoyed. This whole thing was so stupid. Why were they worrying about him? They had a diplomatic meeting to get to. Now wasn't the time for a therapy session. Especially in front of everyone. "Who cares? Can't we just let it go? We have more important things to do," he said angrily.

Shiro frowned. "Lance your feelings are important."

"Just forget it!" Lance shouted, pushing past Shiro.

"Lance-"

"No! This is stupid. We don't need to talk about this. Especially not now. We have a meeting to get to. We can deal with this later." Lance really wanted to deal with it _never_ but he figured that might be too good to be true. He knew they would try to go back to this conversation again.

"Lance, please-"

"No!"

"This needs to be talked about-"

"Not right now!" Lance shouted. He was angry. He wanted to forget this whole thing had ever happened. He was hoping that he would wake up any minute and find out this was just a hyper realistic nightmare. Lance looked Shiro straight in the eyes and dropped his voice to a calmer beg. "Please? Later?"

Shiro sighed. "Fine. Later."

"Thank you," he mumbled. Lance looked over to the rest of the team. They had been standing there staring at them the entire time. They looked shocked, confused, unsure of what to do. "Let's go have this meeting," Lance ordered before turning around and walking out of the room. He didn't bother to see if anyone else was coming. He wanted to leave that room and get away from that dumb orb. He never wanted to see it again.

The rest of the team followed him out. They didn't bring it up again at the meeting but as soon as they were back in the castle they planned on sitting down and having a long conversation with Lance about his lack of self-esteem. Until then, everyone kept glancing at Lance to make sure he was okay. It made him feel like they were afraid he was going to break at any moment. Lance hated how on edge they acted. He didn't want them to treat him like he was fragile.

No one left his side for the rest of the mission. The amount of raw emotion they had seen scared them. They couldn't quite shake the image of the bright blue lights burning through the city.


End file.
